Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Discovery (Update: 18th Aug - Sanding and paint work)

Weekend update!

So here is the promised update:

After mounting the mobo standoffs I noticed that all pci-e, agp and pci expansion cards have little, err, thing (don't know the word to describe ) that prevents expansion cards from sliding in their place. So I cut small hole to the motherboard tray. Not the most beautiful cut, but it'll do for now. I'll clean it later.



Since PSU don't fit between the side frames, I had to file some aluminium off





And here you see the end result



Then I started cutting holes to back plate.



Just FYI, that Black&Decker jigsaw is a year older than me!





And here filing done.



Back-plate attached to the case and psu attached to the back-plate. Cuts aren't finished yet, and I probably round those corners a bit.





Until next time, bye!

 

Roof and side panels + front grille plans

Been a while since last update. I've been busy at work and haven't had much spare time for this project, but now I have a free weekend and hopefully I manage to get something done

After I got stainless M4 hex head screws, I was able to start mounting top and side panels. Let the pictures do the talking







After I found my dad's screw taps, using threads instead of regular nuts feels a lot more useful solution.

After roof was in place I mounted both side panels:






Now next part was very time consuming to me. It's about the front panel and it's design that kept haunting me days until I found hole shape that I like. Idea came from a video game, I'll take screen shots of it tomorrow since it's late already.

This was my original plan, but when I asked opinion from my sister she pointed out that "isn't this the look of the case you can find from any computer store"



Well this made me to think if I should try something different. This is the seventh version that was indeed inspired from a certain computer game. But I wont tell which one just yet



Tomorrow I should be able to make the cuts. Now I'm too tired to continue, hopefully my English head haven't made any tricks for me while writing this . Updates should follow on this weekend or on next week.

Until then, bye!

 

Looking excellent mate can't think of what game the shape resembles though .

 

Well, it's obviously the drugs pill from GTA:Vice City...


Exellent work mate !

 

No, I think he's inspired by Flight Simulator. That's obviously a passenger window from a 747.
Looking good. I did my first case in 1/4" polycarb. Aluminum would have been easier. You made the right choice.
-Gotta love old BD tools. My jigsaw dates to the early '60s.

 

Thanks! Both good quesses, but not right.

Actually this project's name was supposed to be Discovery 747. 747 is the name of a single from Swedish rock band Kent. In fact my gaming nick, which is inspired from the same song is actually Even747 (and I have considered to change it here too). And the songs name is apparently inspired from Boeing's 747. So Cheapskate got close. Kind of .

I'll resize some pictures and post small update next...

 

Front grille. From plans to execution

I got couple hours of work done today, and here's the results



After jigsaw cuts and filling was done, I started to measure screw holes.



But as I predicted, mesh didn't fit so I drilled and dremelled and finally managed to have this. Mesh is galvanized steel since my local aluminum supplier don't stock alu meshes. Front mesh will be painted so it doesn't matter which material it is. Shroud will be polished or at least sanded to look like brushed aluminum so those scratches won't stay there long



I'll try to get it mounted to the case tomorrow, but hopefully this will help you guess my source of inspiration to this front design

Until next time, Cya!

 

Back panel and mesh done!

Back of the case is now almost ready:

Since I wanted to have as much mesh in the back of this case as possible I had to take piece off from the frame itself. I measured a piece big enough so that I'm able to put 120mm exhaust fan in the back if needed.





After that was done, I started to cut hole for the mesh







Hole ready. Now some mesh...



And done! Hole for the psu isn't perfect so if I have time I'll redo that part, some plans have been made for it already




Until next time, Bye!

 

looking very nice i like the front panel vent done something similar on my shark case.

 

Thanks Shael! I'm not sure if this mesh will be the final one to be used in my case. I've heard some bad things like mesh producing sound when air move's through it and thus I should use some finer mesh. I will do some research with this mesh to see if rumors are true.

 

Front fan mount

Well the front mesh is still not mounted, but I noticed that it's actually better I make the fan mounts first. This should make mounting the front panel bit easier.

First the fans I'm going to use. Thermalright X-Silent 140 fans seemed to be one of the best 140mm fans out there, if reviews are to believe. So I ordered two of them, and since they aren't too expensive I can always change them to something different if I'm not happy.



The fans look good too in my opinion.







After necessary drilling, cutting and filling work was done, it was time to see if the fans fit. And they did! In the picture they are mounted using rubber mounts which came with the fans. Not sure if I should mount them with screws instead in future.



And the fan shroud mounted to the case. Hopefully tomorrow I'm able to mount the front mesh to case.



And don't worry, I will reveal the source of inspiration for the mesh shape. I just want to see the mesh on the case before revealing the secret to you

But until next time, See ya!

 

wow... very nice case design. and nice metal working skill you have as well.
it's going to be a very tiddy small case congrats

 

Thanks ColdzeroTeam! The tidy part is still bit uncertain, at least for cable management, since I have planed to use Corsair TX850 V2 psu in this build, and that psu isn't modular... . Reason why I want to use this psu is its quiet (or that's what reviews say) and manufactured by seasonic. AX series would be perfect for being fully modular but they cost a lot more too

 

Front panel mounted! And now finally the promised revelation:

The inspiration for front panel came from Portal, more precisely the aperture workstations seen through the game. I remember thinking it would be great to have a computer like that. And yes the inspiration is bit farfetched if you look the end result




And now pictures about front panel mount

I wanted to have the panel lifted up a bit, so the fans can pull cold air from the sides also. I made some spacers out of alu pipe, and they worked pretty well in fact



Screws will be changed to allen screws...





Inside view to the case



And front panel mounted. Looks good in my opinion. Those scratches will be sanded off, and mesh painted with some dark color.

Now that I remember, here's the list of things I still need to do:

-Sand of all the scratches
-Redo mounting holes for Motherboard
-Find some case foots, or make them.
-Cut air intake for PSU
-Order some dust filters
-Do the rest I've just forgotten



See you later!

 

I really like this case, and may have to imitate your design in the future. I like the compact, simple, yet beautiful look that you have created. I'm following closely... keep modding!

Edit: also +rep for your great work and your good worklog!

 

Thanks a lot Karrek! Now that I think of it, my mantra while building this case have been "keep it simple!" only cause this is my first mod project so I didn't want to take to make this too massive or complex build, just keep everything simple and compact.

Oh and feel free to copy my designs.

 

Case feet

After seeing many times how case builders like Attila make case feet by themselves, I just couldn't resist and decided to try it my self! Since shape of the case is square and angular, I thought feet should follow same shapes:



Yes, case feet made out of solid aluminum block! They still need some sanding though







I like the effect the feet crates. Looks like the case is floating in the air . I still need to by some soft material under the feet so I can protect my table from scratches...

In the last picture you can see the HDD holder, but I won't show it in this update since I must leave to work now and I want to have one more picture before the next update. I'll try to write the HDD update this evening or tomorrow.

But until then, Cya!

 

HDD rack

Now the promised update: HDD rack

At first I was going to fabricate the rack by my self, using some alu pieces and bending them to right size. This however was an epic failure and hopefully you can see why It doesn't look that bad in the picture, but trust me, it was hideous! Honestly, even I look better on Monday morning than this thingy



So, it was time for plan B. I started to think maybe I'm able to get much better hdd rack by borrowing it from some case rather than trying to make one myself. So, an old compucase -case had a great rack for 5 Hard Disks and rubber grommets to isolate the vibrations. I didn't need that much HDDs in my setup, so it was dremel time again!





The case's support frames also required some dremel work, otherwise attach screws for lowest hdd would have been inaccessible.



So that's it, now I have a perfect HDD rack in my case. Reason why I mounted it on the right side of the case instead of a middle is now I can use the space next to the rack for hiding all the unnecessary psu wires. Oh, and the rack will be painted most likely.

And here's the picture that the insides will look eventually. Try to imagine GTX570 and Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z in there with some nice tower CPU cooler



See you later!

 

Painting and Sanding

This week has been busy, but now It's finally time for an update!

Let's start with painting. Mesh that I used in the back of the case and in the front grill was galvanized steel, so it had to be painted. After considering different colors I settled with matte black. To be honest, I had no idea will it actually look good when combined with brushed like aluminum (see further to this update), but in my opinion it suits very well on the case.







And then the sanding part. I tried to take good photos, but these where only ones good enough to be posted here. Trust me, the finish looks a lot better in real life!

First some supplies



And then to the actual sanding





Case feet where sanded only with 120 grit wet sanding paper. All other panels went through 120, 240, 360 and 600 grits. I'm happy with the results since my goal was to get brushed/matte look for the panels.



I also ordered all the hardware for this project. Pics will follow when parcels arrive!

Back as soon as possible! Cya